The announcement this week that CSIRO are to cut 350 research jobs is another damning indictment on Australia’s ongoing failure to prioritise research and development.
Wed 19 Nov 2025 11.00
Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The announcement this week that CSIRO are to cut 350 research jobs is another damning indictment on Australia’s ongoing failure to prioritise research and development.
The statement from CSIRO attempted to make the news sound as bland as possible:
“CSIRO has today announced changes to its research direction and a workforce reduction as part of a broader strategy to ensure a sustainable and enduring national science agency – one that can continue delivering the science Australia needs to meet the challenges of the decades ahead.”
The organisation tried to pretend all it was doing was bringing “a renewed emphasis on inventing and deploying technological solutions to tackle national problems”. That all sounded reasonable until the CSIRO dropped the news that this will involve axing between 300 to 350 full-time equivalent” researcher roles.
It was clear that the changes were not due to a desire to “tackle national problems” but to cut costs.
The CSIRO is not prioritising research; it is cutting research.
Prioritising would mean increasing funding and researchers into certain areas while reducing funding on others. That is not happening – all we have are the reductions.
It comes at the very point Australia should be doing the oppositive of cutting science and other research and development.
The funding cuts and staffing changes to scientific research organisations in the United States under the Trump administration, which has involved cutting nearly US$3bn in funding and axing more than 3,800 research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, provided a once in a generation opportunity for Australia to attract researchers.
Research and development is also vital for increasing productivity in the long-term – indeed it is the main driver of productivity.
The Australian government is however one of the worst funders of R&D across all advanced economies:
In 2023, Australia had the 8th lowest level of government support for R&D – well below than OED average and lower than every nation in the G7.
At the very time the Australian government should be increasing funding and support for research, the announcement by the CSIRO shows we are going in the opposite direction.
This is not just a blow to the economy and Australian society in the long-run, but also wastes the opportunity gifted to us by Trump to attract the smartest minds to Australia, and position us as a destination that values science and innovation.
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